1. Technical Field
The technical field relates generally to communication between computerized devices and, more specifically, to systems and methods for transferring data between devices coupled via a bus.
2. Background Discussion
Many communication protocols exist for networks that employ a bus topology. Most of these protocols support point to point and broadcast communications between devices and include processes for handling errors in communication. However, due to the complexity of arbitrating bus contention and other forms of overhead, methods used to perform handshaking and delivery verification vary between point to point and broadcast communications.
Some networking standards that employ a bus topology have been extremely successful in the marketplace. For instance, RS-485 based networks implementing the MODBUS protocol have a wide installed base in industrial applications. There are sundry reasons for the success of these networks, and some include ease of implementation, low cost of materials and robust performance in noisy, industrial settings. Other network standards that employ a bus topology include CAN, PC and many radio based networks such as WLAN, ZigBee and Bluetooth.